Timeline of West Virginia: Civil War and Statehood
Undated
January 1865

Wheeling Daily Intelligencer
January 31, 1865

Hard on the Reels.—A bill is now before the House of Delegates which provided that any person who shall have heretofore borne arms or who shall hereafter bear arms against the government of the United States, or of this State, shall be required within thirty days after the passage of this act to take and subscribe an oath that they will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of West Virginia, to be filed in the office of the recorder of the county where such person resides. Any person failing to comply with the requirements of the law shall be liable to fine or imprisonment, or both, at the discretion of the Circuit Court of the county where such person resides. The bill also provides that from and after thirty days from the passage of the act no contract or obligation entered into with any such person as is embraced in the law, shall be binding or obligatory upon any one, either in law or equity; and it shall be a sufficient bar to any action, either in law or enforce the same has either borne arms, or held or accepted office, as named in the first section of this act. Any person liable to the penalties imposed by the act, who shall refuse within six months from its passage to take the oath prescribed shall be compelled to leave the State.